Everything you need to know about Star Wars: The Old Republic's free-to-play update

Listen up, pilots: The devs have made a critical update, and the time for our return has come. Star Wars: The Old Republic is releasing both Update 1.5 and its free-to-play transition today, which means that the doors are open for both new and returning players to join BioWare's flock. That's right: sheep with lightsabers. You can Google Image search that later.

To help get you caught up to speed, we've rounded up all of our pertinent posts about Update 1.5 and SWTOR's F2P in this handy holorecording. For those of you not thinking about black sheep turning to the dark side of the Force and baaa'ing out lightning, you can check out our coverage after the jump.

Hyperspace Beacon: Gearing up for SWTOR Update 1.5Star Wars: The Old Republic fans have been anticipating this week since the middle of the summer, and many players who dropped the game shortly after launch are looking forward to trying it out again.

SWTOR developers talk about update 1.5 Star Wars: The Old Republic's game update 1.5, HK-51 Activated, is looming ever-closer. To stir up some interest, the dev team has released information about the new HK-51 companion and the patch's graphical updates.

Hyperspace Beacon: Returning to SWTORWith Update 1.5 and free-to-play looming on the Star Wars: The Old Republic horizon, many players are feeling the itch to come back to the game. Two and half years ago when I started the Hyperspace Beacon, I compared that itch to that of a freshly shaved Wookiee.

SWTOR uploads new companion HK-51's backstoryComing to Star Wars: The Old Republic in Update 1.5 is the game's first additional post-launch companion: HK-51. BioWare's crafted an encyclopedia entry designed to get us familiar with the substance and style of this new character.

EA's Moore on SWTOR: 'Price was always the issue'Wired has a new interview with Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore that touches on just about every facet of the games industry.The former Microsoft exec talks at length about his Xbox days, Zynga, mobile gaming, digital vs.

SWTOR lead dev addresses free-to-play concernsStar Wars: The Old Republic players are checking out the game's potential free-to-play changes on the test server, and serious concerns about some of the restrictions have prompted a response from BioWare.

Star Wars: The Old Republic transmits free-to-play videoThe race toward free-to-play is gaining momentum for Star Wars: The Old Republic. BioWare's been talking the transition up quite a bit lately, and has just released a new video giving players an overview of the differences once the change is made.

SWTOR delineates restrictions on F2P playersInevitably, the first question anyone asks in the wake of a free-to-play conversion is about how much a person can get for the price of nothing. Previously, Star Wars: The Old Republic had posted an explanation of the many ways free players would get only limited access, but an updated chart makes the exact limitations clear.